Museum Organizers Ask To Bring Tall Ship To Port

April 20, 1989|By NEIL SANTANIELLO, Staff Writer

RIVIERA BEACH -- A group seeking to establish Florida`s first maritime museum by bringing to town a full-scale replica of an 1884 topsail schooner did not get a definitive answer from Port of Palm Beach commissioners on Wednesday after asking if the tall ship could sail in port waters.

Organizers of the Palm Beach Maritime Museum were told by commissioners that the four-story port administration building could not provide them with office space because the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has claimed the last available room.

John C. Grant, president of the Palm Beach-based Ocean Learning Institute, said his organization is trying to bring the 158-foot schooner Clipper City from its summer home port of Baltimore Harbor to the Port of Palm Beach, or West Palm Beach, to dock during winter months as part of a museum publicity effort.

The organization wants to put the maritime museum in the U.S. Coast Guard station on Peanut Island, inside the port`s shipping channel, and use the ship as a focal point for the museum and as a money-making tourist attraction.

The Coast Guard has plans to abandon the 65-acre, man-made island within two years and move its operations to the mainland.

But the fate of the Coast Guard station or museum proposal could be out of the Port Commission`s hands, port Chairman John Sansbury said. Commissioners are considering trading the island to Palm Beach County in exchange for land that could be used to expand the port.

As part of the deal, port commissioners would ask the county to make the island a public park.

Regarding the schooner, museum organizers said they already have approached the city of West Palm Beach, which is checking into providing dock space at Currie Park on Flagler Drive.

Grant said the ship has been profitable in Baltimore. After-expenses earnings have been $35,000 to $40,000 a month, he said.

Grant said the Port of Palm Beach is a natural place for the square-rigged schooner to sail, especially if Peanut Island becomes the maritime museum`s home.

``We would get a lot of interest in the port (from it) and attract a lot of tourists,`` Grant said.

Port commissioners were largely noncommittal.

Sansbury said he liked the schooner proposal.

Commissioner James Montgomery disagreed, saying the tall ship would be totally out of character with port operations.